Parental diet is a crucial factor in the future metabolic health of the offspring, say researchers, adding that when parents eat low-protein or high-fat diets it can lead to metabolic disorders in their adult offspring.
According to the study, published in the journal Molecular Cell, researchers at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan, identified a key player and the molecular events underlying this phenomenon in mice.
Experimental evidence indicates that environmental factors that affect parents do play a role in reprogramming the health of their offspring throughout their lifespan.
In particular, parental low-protein diets are known to be related to metabolic disorders in their children, such as diabetes, the study said.
This phenomenon is thought to be regulated through epigenetics--heritable changes in which genes are turned on and off without actually changing an individual's DNA.
However, until now, the details of this process were unknown.
In their study, a team led by Keisuke Yoshida and Shunsuke Ishii at RIKEN CPR tackled this question in a mouse model and discovered that a protein called ATF7 is essential for the intergenerational effect.
ATF7 is a transcription factor, meaning that it regulates when genes are turned on and off.
The researchers fed male and female mice on normal diets or low protein diets and then allowed them to mate.
They compared gene expression--which genes were turned on--in adult offspring of male mice who had been on the two different diets and found that expression differed for hundreds of genes in the liver, many of which are involved in cholesterol metabolism.
However, when they used genetically engineered male mice that lacked one copy of the ATF7 gene, gene expression in the offspring did not differ from the expression in offspring whose parents ate normal diets.
This result means that a male mouse's diet can influence the health of future children.
As male mice cannot affect offspring in pregnant females, the researchers concluded that the most likely scenario was that the epigenetic changes occurred in the male's sperm before conception, and that ATF7 has a critical function in this process.
Based on this logic, the team searched for and found genes in sperm cells that are controlled by ATF7, including those for fat metabolism in the liver and cholesterol production.
Experiments revealed that when fathers-to-be ate low protein diets, ATF7 came loose and no longer bound to these genes.
This in turn reduced a particular modification to histone proteins, with a net effect that these sperm-cell genes were turned on, rather than the normal situation of being turned off, according to the researchers.
"The most surprising and exciting discovery was that the epigenetic change induced by paternal low protein diet is maintained in mature sperm during spermatogenesis and transmitted to the next generation," Ishii said.
New immunotherapy to fight cancer, keep healthy cells safe
A team of US researchers has developed a new immunotherapy technique that uses cytokine proteins as a potential treatment, effectively targeting tumours without causing harm to healthy cells.
Why excess sugar, oil are as dangerous for liver as alcohol
While alcohol is known to be bad for liver health, consuming foods rich in sugar and oil may be equally dangerous for the organ as well as for overall health, said doctors on Thursday, ahead of World Liver Day.
Lungs of young adults more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 virus: Study
While older age has been associated with an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, a new study has revealed that the lungs of young adults are more susceptible to the virus.
This vaccine helped over 50 pc of people remain UTI-free for years
More than 50 per cent of people remained Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)-free for up to nine years who received the oral spray-based vaccine 'MV140', a new study has said.
Congress in Tripura blocks rail stations to protest police fired-killing of 5 farmers in MP
The firing on Tuesday came during raucous protests to demand better crop prices in the drought-ravaged region that saw one farmer suicide every five hours in the past two years.
DMs, SPs of violence-hit MP districts transferred
The farmers agitation entered its eighth day on Thursday. The peasants have been on strike since June 1, demanding loan waiver and fair price for their produce.
Indian American selected among 12 NASA astronaut candidates
He continued on to earn a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated from the US Naval Test Pilot School.
World's oldest human species' fossils found in Morocco
The institute said the remains of the Homo sapiens, which were found in a remote village called Jbel Irhoud, date back to over 300,000 years ago, Xinhua reported.